She's Come Undone

By: Wally Lamb

Narrated by: Linda Stephens

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of three Oprah Book Club Picks including The River Is Waiting—Wally Lamb takes us on an extraordinary journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years.

“Mine is a story of craving: an unreliable account of lusts and troubles that began, somehow, in 1956 on the day our free television was delivered....”

Meet Dolores Price. She’s thirteen, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye. Beached like a whale in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally rolls into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she’s determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before really going belly up.

In this extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch a wild ride on a journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years. At once a fragile girl and a hard-edged cynic, so tough to love yet so inimitably lovable, Dolores is as poignantly real as our own imperfections. She’s Come Undone includes a promise: you will never forget Dolores Price.

Well Done

Nearly 200 titles into my audiobook habit, I'm still trying to figure out what makes for a good listen vs. a traditional read, especially within my favorite genres. I've grown somewhat wary of audio editions of literary novels -- they are almost always character-driven and light on plot, and therefore difficult in some cases to follow in audio. But it's still my favorite style of fiction, so I keep trying.

At first, She's Come Undone was on track to disappoint me in that very way. The first few hours are pure character development, no forward momentum in the narrative at all. I could not imagine getting through another 15+ hours of that, could not imagine what could possibly fill another 15+ hours, short of tedium and repetition.

But there is one quality an audiobook may possess that you cannot get in print -- an actual voice reciting the inner monologue of your protagonist. If that voice is first person and at least sometimes comic (as is the case here on both counts), a narrator that captures that voice can make the listening experience far more effective than the voice inside your head when you read in print.

That's the case here, for me at least -- look at the other reviews and you will see contrary opinions on the effectiveness of Linda Stephens as narrator. Add in the decidedly mixed reviews on Goodreads provided by (presumably) a large percentage of print readers, and She's Come Undone is clearly a love-it or hate-it kind of book. There is little middle ground.

I come in on the love-it (or more accurately the like it well enough) side, and that is primarily because of Linda Stephens's narration. In addition, Dolores, battling her weight issues, depression, family dysfunction, bullying, bad relationships, and some serious tragedy, is similar in many ways to someone very close to me, so I found the story highly relatable. Some of the events and symbolism (the whale) are indeed as heavy handed as the harsher critics claim, but for me, no showstoppers there, just a four-star listen rather than five-star.

Narrator was occasionally distracting

Narrator had a distracting quality to her voice, especially when she sang or did impressions of other characters in the book. The book overall was pretty good, although I did not enjoy it as much as other Wally lamb books I have read.

Loved it

I love this book and the app I recommend anyone to read!! Thank you Audible

Weird sub stories

Good narration but the story took weird uncomfortable at times twists. I doubt I'll go back and listen again

She's Come Undone

loved it couldn't stop listening even went to bed with it and the narrator was excellant.